Akshay Kumar in and as 'Padman' in R Balki's next produced by Twinkle Khanna

In what will be his wife Twinkle Khanna's maiden production venture under her new banner Mrs Funnybones Movies, Akshay Kumar will play a sanitary napkin manufacturer in filmmaker R Balki's Padman.

Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna. Twitter

Khanna has launched her production house, named after her pen name in the capacity of a columnist. The first film under the banner will be a biopic of social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham who dedicated his life to the cause of hygienic menstruation and cost-effective manufacturing of quality sanitary pads.

Khanna has already chronicled Muruganantham's life in the final short story of her second novel The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad titled The Sanitary Man from A Scared Land. She has traced his journey from a nobody to being awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government for revolutionising the sanitary pad industry worldwide.

Kumar took to Twitter to announce a new film which will be his fourth this year, titled Padman. He will be seen playing the titular character of Muruganantham who is known as the 'Menstrual Man of India.' The last time he acted in a biopic was last year in Tinu Suresh Desai's Rustom in which he played the titular character of Naval Officer Rustom Pavri.

Storypick reports how Kumar and Khanna had been chasing Muruganantham for months now. The entrepreneur was not aware of who Twinkle and Balki was until his neighbours informed him that the former is the daughter of the late superstar Rajesh Khanna and the latter has directed Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor Khan in his past films.

There were speculations that Kumar will not be seen playing the titular role in Padman as R Balki has roped in a Tamil actor instead. However, Hindustan Times reports that Balki has confirmed that Kumar is indeed playing the role. He added that the film will go on floors this March and will be shot at a stretch.

As reported earlier, Kumar will also be seen sharing the screen space with Amitabh Bachchan after over a decade. Howver the senior actor's character has not been revealed yet.